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Very odd- I’ve used oatmeal in meat loaf (fine results) but in hamburgers? Maybe with the fine textured “Instant” stuff, but the only way I can really see this working is with the cheapest sort of ground beef with a very high fat content.

There are ‘quick’ oats and ‘old-fashioned’ oats. I have had unfortunate experience making baked goods using the wrong kind of oats (which did indeed stay hard and chewy). That’s all I can think of as to what went wrong. Cracker crumbs or bread crumbs would work, but oatmeal? maybe not.

I think quick oats would work better — like any nice vague recipe I just got the brand name, no other information, so stood in the grocery store aisle going “er hmm” for a few minutes and then just picked one. Oh well :-)

I’ve used both oats, and ‘cheap’ ground beef, our usual choice is to stock UP when ground chuck is on sale.

Either way, in the oven, in a cast iron skillet or on the grill, the oats don’t have enough time, as a burger, to get soft. In meat loaf the oats work. But it recipe surfing my D-i-L found something better that the oats or bread crumbs and even just that old stand by of bread soaked in milk.

Ritz Crackers.

The first recipe we tried was Ranch Burgers, with the RC’s as booster. But we’ve used the crackers in meat loaf and burgers grilled and broiled to great effect.

[I don’t work for Nabisco and they didn’t pay me to use their crackers…]

Hi Erica!
So that’s where I “learned” to put oatmeal in hamburgers (and meat loaf:) My kids were too young to know the difference so when they grew up, they just figured it was my “normal” way of making them. I must admit, the oats do work better in meat loaf. (I also put applesauce in meat loaf:)

Thanks for sharing, Erica. I see you’re still doing a wonderful job at those “retro” attempts…

This is actually pretty close to the default hamburger/meatloaf recipe of my childhood, except that my mother typically used an egg or two rather than tomato anything to provide the extra liquid. Yeah, the burgers were always a bit chewy, but if you grow up with that you tend not to notice it so much. And it was always more painful to mix than fun–a couple of pounds of refrigerated hamburger is *cold*.